FEATURED ARTICLE
Research: Women Are Better Leaders During a Crisis
by Harvard Business Review
The films highlighted this month follow extraordinary women leading through crises, both private and widespread. In these films, we find protagonists who must challenge traditional norms in order to attain leadership, and then to manage their role and responsibilities once they’ve achieved it. Their leadership challenges expectations, not just in the novelty of their success, but also in the ways they seek to enact change.
The Harvard Business Review’s analysis of effective leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic reveals that, on a large scale, employees have a gender bias favoring women. In this study, HBR pulled from assessments of over 60,000 leaders (22,603 women and 40,187 men); of that sample size, women leaders were ranked more positively than males in thirteen out of the nineteen competencies, including “takes initiative”, and “communicates powerfully and prolifically”. There was only one competency in which male leaders outranked female leaders, ‘Technical or Professional Expertise’, and not overwhelmingly-- only a two degree increase from the female leadership panel. Perhaps the most interesting takeaway, however, is the comparative analysis of leadership effectiveness before and during the crisis. While the ‘overall effectiveness rating’ of male leaders before the pandemic moved up less than two degrees, from 49.8 to 51.5, while female leaders’ effectiveness rating jumped over four degrees, from 53.1 to 57.2. The impressive increase in female leadership effectiveness from before to during the pandemic indicates that women perform well in managing leadership during a crisis.
What is it, then, that makes women such effective leaders? We looked at The New York Times’ article “Women, Leadership, and The Post-Pandemic World” to glean insight from a variety of leading women of various industries. From aiding in providing access to health care, to pushing for skill development in digital technology, to sustaining efforts in creating an inclusive workplace, several women discuss their principles for leadership during a crisis.